Tuesday Talk - Commonwealth Games Federation President on 2018 Vote, Past 17 Years

(ATR) "It's important to know when to depart," Michael Fennell tells Around the Rings as he prepares to hand over the reigns of the Commonwealth Games Federation this week in St. Kitts.

During 17 years as CGF president, Fennell oversaw Kuala Lumpur 1998, Manchester 2002, Melbourne 2006 and Delhi 2010.

He leaves office Friday, the same day delegates from the CGF's 71 member nations vote between Hambantota, Sri Lanka and Gold Coast, Australia for the 2018 Games.

Read on for Fennell's take on the past four editions of the Commonwealth Games as well as a look ahead at Friday's decision in St. Kitts.

Around the Rings: This seems to be a decision between experience in Gold Coast on the one hand and perhaps a combination of frontierism and using sport to fuel development for Hambantota on the other. How is the Commonwealth Games Federation approaching this decision?

Michael Fennell: We feel we’ve had a very exciting time with the bid process and the activities of the two bid cities because they really raised the awareness of the Commonwealth Games and the Commonwealth and all that’s going on by those activities.

Certainly, we have kept all our 71 members fully informed both in terms of the reports that we have received and those of our Evaluation Commission. In addition to that, of course, the two cities invited all of them to visit for their own personal inspections, so I think it has been a very thorough and exciting period.

ATR: Do you get the sense that what happened in Delhi with the 2010 Commonwealth Games is at all affecting Hambantota’s chances for the 2018 Games?

MF:I’ve heard that comment before that because there were specific problems with India, they would associate that with Hambantota, but I don’t think that is a factor at all. I think people will be looking at it very objectively. They’ve had a chance to be presented with their cases properly, and I don’t think that will be an important factor.

ATR: Has the Jamaica Olympic Association made up its mind yet regarding the vote?

MF: Yes, but we don’t disclose that in advance.

ATR: When did you decide not to stand for reelection as CGF president, and why?

MF: Sometime last year, we looked at other people who had aspirations of leading the organization, and the fact that I’d been there for 17 years, provided leadership and oversight for four Games and we felt that was perhaps a good time to retire.

There were a lot of people who encouraged me to stay on, but at the same time I think it’s important to know when to depart and to leave it to other people to carry on into the future.

ATR: As you mentioned, you oversaw four Games in Kuala Lumpur, Manchester, Melbourne and Delhi in your 17 years as president. Does any stand out as your favorite?

MF: This is a question I have often been asked, and of course they’re always different in their characteristics. It’s difficult to pick out any one because you’re not judging eggs with eggs.

In terms of Kuala Lumpur, of course, being the first Games that I had direct responsibility for, it also represented a change of gear for the federation when we introduced team sports for the very first time. It also had a massive build-up of infrastructure for the city, who was takingfull advantage of the occasion to introduce things for their city and countrythat may have been delayed much longer than that, so that certainly was quite outstanding.

Manchester, who had some doubts and reluctance, stuck to it and again the activities of the city council were particularly outstanding in standing by the Games fully throughout a difficult period of planning.

Melbourne, of course, was a horse of a different color in that they have a very mature sports infrastructure, a very strong sports culture. In fact, perhaps it’s the strongest of any city in the world, but yet they had their challenges and eventually they organized a Games that could stand up to any multi-sport Games anywhere in the world, including the Olympic Games, so that was particularly outstanding.

Delhi, of course, had its own problems with planning in the lead-up to it, but eventually from the sports point of view, they turned out to be exceptional Games despite the quarrels and difficulties that we had in the very unfavorable media reporting that took place just prior to the opening of the Games.

ATR: A year after the close of Delhi 2010, do you haveany regrets about taking the Commonwealth Games to India for the first time in light of the messy cleanupto the Games?

MF: No, not at all. I think with all of these things, if you’re not prepared to take the risk and take the chance of moving into new ground, you’ll never know.

Perhaps my regret might have been deeper if we did not go to Delhi … you know, why have we missed such an opportunity? I think it’s enough that the Indians learned quite a lot about hosting international events. It also taught us about the different cultures that you have to deal with around the world when you’re taking Games to new places.

ATR: Finally, what vision do you leave the CGF with for the future of the Games? Do you hope they get bigger, better, more athletes, more sports? I guess the CGF is in a unique situation in that there presumably aren’t going to be any countries added to the Commonwealth in the future, so that kind of limits the growth in that aspect, but how do you envision the Games going forward?

MF: My vision, more than a vision, my hope is that we continue to preserve those values of sport that I think we have done so well. The fact that we are still called and can still demonstrate that we’re the "Friendly Games" despite intense competition, we feel that we give a lot of opportunities to even the smallest countries in taking part in a high-profile sports event and we feel that we’ve got to continue to make a program of events relative to the various stakeholders and, in particular, the athletes – that we will continue to work and make it more and more attractive to them into the future.

ATR: Anything else you wanted to share with me ahead of Friday’s decision?

MF: I’ve just returned from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Australia, where in conjunction with the Australian government we hosted a sports breakfast Saturday, which was extremely successful and it again demonstrated the pull and the attractiveness of the Commonwealth Games. We used the occasion to try and influence our political leaders to recognize the power of sport and the importance of sport to development and to our young people throughout the Commonwealth.

Again, I thought that was another really really very successful exercise that we embark on with the Commonwealth Heads of Government.

Interview conducted by Matthew Grayson

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